


I'll Be There

by nilshki



Series: No matter where you are, I'll be there. [2]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:33:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22051108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nilshki/pseuds/nilshki
Summary: Part two of the prompt fromPrompt A Buddieon Tumblr. I couple of people asked for Buck's perspective and I liked the idea a lot.Beta read by the amazinfxpaperheartso- thank you for brainstorming with me!!Title is from "No Matter Where You Are" by Us The Duo (again, lol)Hope you guys enjoy it!
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Series: No matter where you are, I'll be there. [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1587166
Comments: 24
Kudos: 333
Collections: Buck and Eddie are Soulmates





	I'll Be There

**Author's Note:**

> Part two of the prompt from [Prompt A Buddie](https://promptabuddie.tumblr.com/post/189959890579/everybody-has-three-soulmarks-one-youre-born) on Tumblr. I couple of people asked for Buck's perspective and I liked the idea a lot.  
> Beta read by the amazinf [xpaperheartso](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xpaperheartso/pseuds/xpaperheartso) \- thank you for brainstorming with me!!  
> Title is from "No Matter Where You Are" by Us The Duo (again, lol)  
> Hope you guys enjoy it!

Buck was seven when Maddie first told him about soulmarks. 

He’d never realized that the birthmark on his shoulder meant something. He just figured it was there. 

“That’s your family mark, Evan. It tells you who is destined to be your family.”

“But Maddie, you don’t have one like mine.”

She smiled. “That doesn’t matter. It’s not something you _need_ for someone to be family. Mine isn’t like mom’s, or dad’s, or yours. It means there’s someone else out there that needs me to be there for them too.”

He nodded. “I guess that makes sense. But you’ll always be here for me, right Maddie.”

She hugged him tight. “Always, Evan.”

**

He was fifteen when she broke her promise. 

He’d stopped believing in soulmarks by then. When he was ten, he got a compass on his right hip. A star really, but it pointed in the four directions. 

He didn’t know how to find anyone who had the same mark, because who went around looking at people’s hips? It was five years since he’d gotten that mark, and he didn’t meet anyone who had one. Even when the girls started to wear low-rise jeans. The first girl he slept with didn’t have it. Neither did the first guy. Neither did anyone else he’d been with.

He didn’t miss the irony of the mark. How could he? He was lost, he knew that. He didn’t pay attention in school, he didn’t have any close friends. He was in and out of foster homes. So why did he have a compass? Where was it supposed to lead him? He didn't have anyone who really loved him, besides Maddie. And she left. 

Maddie had fallen in love, that’s why she left him. He didn’t have the same soulmark, but Maddie said she loved him anyway. “Sometimes people don’t meet their romantic soulmate until they’re well into their eighties, Evan! I’m going to be happy now too, and I love him.” So she went away with Doug, all the way to the Midwest. She promised to keep in touch, to call often, to still be there for him. Since no one else would be.

But Buck had a bad feeling.

**

When Buck was twenty, petals appeared around his compass. He was in Argentina, spending the summer tending bar. He’d done two years of community college and was set to start at U Penn in the fall. It was a big accomplishment. Maddie had even called to congratulate him. He’d finally found some direction, and he had hoped that the compass would lead him to the person who was supposed to share that direction with. But it didn’t. He didn’t meet anyone who had any of the same marks as he did. 

The guy he was dating - sort of - recognized the flower immediately. They lay in bed in Buck’s rented room above the bar. “It’s a California poppy, Buck. Gorgeous flower. Gorgeous mark,” he’d said. And proceeded to trace the outlines of the petals with his tongue. Buck didn’t think too hard about it after that. He didn’t put much stock in the marks anyway. 

But he looked into UCLA, into their science program. He wanted to learn more about how the world worked. And he wanted to help people, he just wasn’t quite sure how yet. He had been planning on majoring in education at U Penn, but that didn’t feel right anymore. When the summer was over, he went to California.

**

When Buck was twenty six, he met someone who also had the poppy. She didn’t have the compass, which didn’t make sense to him. Everything he knew about soulmarks said that those two should be the same person for him. But Abby was smart, and pretty, and _real_ . She wanted to know him, she wanted him to know her. She was the first person he fell in love with. He liked who he was with her. He could stop sleeping with every random person who caught his eye just to feel less lonely. He had someone now. Someone who wanted _him_. 

When her mother died, he understood she needed time, and space.

It was a while before he realized. He was looking at old pictures, of one they had taken of both their soulmarks together. Both poppies, both four petaled. Same spot, same shapes. He had been meant to be with Abby, for however long it lasted. 

But they had never really matched. 

**

Buck was twenty eight, and had just survived a tsunami, when his best friend told him to take a look at his son’s shoulder. He was falling apart at the time, and wasn’t exactly interested. 

“Christopher, come here a sec,” Eddie called. He had brought Christopher back to Buck’s, to leave him there while he went to work. Which didn’t make any sense to Buck. Christopher started to make his way from Buck’s couch to the kitchen.

“Eddie, I lost him. I don’t understand how you can trust me with him.”

Eddie ignore him. “Chris, pull up your sleeve, show Buck the mark.”

Buck watched in confusion, then astonishment, as Christopher revealed the small fish on his shoulder. Buck tugged up his own sleeve to see the mark that he already knew was exactly the same. He crouched down so he was level with Chris, looked into his eyes. Christopher reached out to touch Buck’s mark. 

“We...I…” He couldn’t speak. Christopher smiled angelically. “You’re my family Buck. You’ll always take care of me.” He turned and went back to the living room. Buck was still speechless.

Eddie put his hand on Buck’s shoulder, one finger grazing the mark. Buck had to stop himself from shivering.

“Buck, there is no one in this world I trust with my son more than you.”

**

When Buck was twenty-nine he found out that _both_ of the Diaz boys were his soulmates. His partner, his best friend, and his family. Christopher had the fish. Eddie had the compass and the poppy. They matched perfectly, the exact same mark in the exact same place. He’d peppered that mark with kisses, thrilled to finally have found it. That it was _Eddie_ who had it? Was the greatest miracle of all. He’d wanted this for so long, and now he knew it was meant to be. He laid his head on Eddie’s chest and breathed in his scent. 

“...The poppies were blooming the day I met you,” Eddie was saying. “Still don’t really get the compass though.”

Buck tilted his head up. “I was lost Eddie. I guess you were too, a little. But I found you, my true north. It was leading me to you all along. So wherever you are, Eddie? I’ll be there.”

**Author's Note:**

> I don't love this one as much as I love the Eddie perspective, but I hope you guys enjoy it anyway! Let me know what you think!


End file.
